Smiling From Within

“[The song] Green Garden is about beauty and joy and lush green and dance and excitement and smiling from within.”

The Regular Ol’ News

Throughout its ten years, Artists Project Earth has always focused on solutions to the world’s problems. That’s what our new Oceans album is all about – raising money to fund projects that are finding new ways to live sustainably on the earth. But it’s not always easy to stay positive about the future when there seem to be so many interconnecting and overwhelming problems – climate change being perhaps the most serious of them all. Sometimes, hope for the future seems futile when there’s so much destruction in the world.

But it’s worth remembering Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Physics: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This has become a bit of a mantra here at APE and it’s what keeps us going and focused on our work. Because for every act of violence, there is an act of kindness; for every act of destruction there is an act of creation. This does not seem credible at first, because all we hear from the world’s media is relentless bad news. Fear drives the economy: it sells weapons and newspapers and division – but what if we only focused on the good things that are happening in the world instead, like over at Positive News?

The Good News – The Green Garden

We’d suddenly realise that there are amazing things happening. Forests are being replanted, animal rights are being enshrined in law, refugees are being welcomed with love and kind-heartedness in many countries, food waste is being tackled, organisations are working on new forms of positive money, and miracle of miracles, world leaders have come together at COP21 to address climate change. These things should all put a smile on our face.

This is why we are so privileged to work with Laura Mvula and include her heartfelt song ‘Green Garden’ in our new album– because it is so positive and upbeat. As Laura herself says, “Green Garden is about beauty and joy and lush green and dance and excitement and smiling from within.” We have to believe in our hearts that beauty and joy, dance and excitement, and lush green beauty are worth striving for and that there is hope for the world. At Christmas time, there seems to be so much greed and consumerism, but there is also the equal and opposite: an outpouring of compassion and giving and love. These things should help us to keep smiling from within.

This is the great paradox of life; it’s what keeps the world turning. In the midst of war, there is peace. In the midst of death, there is life. In the midst of fear, there is love. In the midst of suffering … there is healing.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year one and all. May 2016 be a year of Great Healing.